The existing process for preparing a quotation, more specifically, a quotation for a custom-made product, is oftentimes cumbersome and inefficient for a number of reasons. For example, automotive suppliers mass produce products that are uniquely designed to customer specifications for assembly into vehicles. The automotive supplier uses a list of manufacturing processes and/or assembly components that are purchased from sub-suppliers. An automotive supplier is typically given about ten days to respond to a customer request for quotation. Within this ten-day or other reasonably short period of time, a rigorous business process takes place whereby people from multiple departments must contribute information and expertise to assess the design, manufacturing process, capacity, cost, investment, price, strategy, and logistics. Then, the supplier must submit its quotation in a format specified by the customer.
Due to the short period of time allowed by the customer for the supplier to prepare the quotation, the supplier typically faces difficult challenges when developing the quotation. For example, the supplier is faced with applying enormous overhead to process a request for quotation through its system and deliver a quotation to the customer within the short period of time. For example, the supplier may sometimes skip some approval steps or make assumptions to ensure timely submission of the quotation. This may result in inaccuracies and have undesirable results, particularly in markets with thin margins. For example, the supplier may be forced to deliver a late quotation due to the time constraints imposed by the customer. These are just a few examples of the difficulties faced by a supplier when preparing a quotation. Other obstacles faced by the supplier include the fact that sometimes geography and international borders separate contributors and approvers, making it difficult to manage and oversee the entire quotation process.
One technique for preparing quotations that is used today is a spreadsheet-based quotation technique. That is, various departments make calculations using spreadsheets and pass these spreadsheets along to each other using, for example, electronic mail. This results in data being separated from its origin, being difficult to track, and being nearly inaccessible for a subsequent analysis. As such, spreadsheet passing techniques used today, although sometimes successful, do have their shortcomings. Although the example given above relates specifically to automotive suppliers, this is only exemplary, and other industries may face similar problems in preparing quotations.
In addition, some attempts have been made to develop quotation software. Typically, existing quotation software involves substantial hard-coding and lacks the flexibility that is often needed to prepare customized quotations, such as, for example, in the automotive industry. Many times, a supplier will have their own particular way of performing cost calculations, and does not want to be restricted to the hard-coded techniques in the quotation software. Because existing quotation software lacks the desirable flexibility, many suppliers have stayed away from these existing software solutions. As a result, suppliers continue to use spreadsheet passing techniques which, as described above, also have shortcomings. Examples of quotation systems and methods are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,115,690; 5,970,476; 5,842,178; 5,717,924; 5,249,120; 5,008,853; 4,992,940; 6,212,549; and 6,370,562.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a quotation system and method that overcomes the shortcomings of existing quotation preparation techniques.